Yes, Kratos Is a Real Deity in Greek Mythology

I have never played any of the games in the video game series God of War. I don’t really have any interest in video games and, even if I did have an interest in them, I would never have time to play them. Nonetheless, as a Hellenist, I like to pay attention to how Greek mythology is portrayed in modern popular culture and I find it interesting that Kratos, the main character in the God of War series, is actually very loosely based on a real figure in Greek mythology.

In Greek mythology, Kratos is the divine personification of strength, the son of the Titan Pallas and the Okeanid nymphe Styx. Ironically, in ancient Greek sources, Kratos is portrayed as a dumb, overly violent thug who is unquestioningly loyal to Zeus and whose job is to enforce Zeus’s authority over all the other deities; whereas I’ve read that, in the video game series God of War, Kratos is apparently portrayed as a renegade demigod who kills all the major deities in the Greek pantheon, including Zeus.

Kratos: the personification of might

The mythological Kratos is the divine personification of power and authority. Nonetheless, this superficially simple description belies the somewhat more confusing reality of the exact role that Kratos occupies in Greek mythology. We normally think of deities as being worshipped, but we have no evidence that Kratos was ever worshipped in ancient Greece as a deity. Likewise, he is virtually never mentioned outside of a mythological or allegorical context.

Therefore, although Kratos is described as a deity, he does not seem to have been envisioned as a deity in the same way Zeus or Athena were envisioned as deities; instead, he was seen as more of a personified concept elevated to the level of being a divine being. He is, in other words, the literal personification of the concept of power itself.

This is reflected in Kratos’s name. The name Kratos itself is literally just the Ancient Greek word κράτος (krátos), which means “strength,” “power,” “authority,” or “dominion.” The same word is also one of the roots of our English word democracy, which comes from the Ancient Greek word δημοκρατία (dēmokratía), which is formed from the Greek word δῆμος (dêmos), meaning “populace,” and κράτος, meaning “power” or “authority.” The word democracy therefore literally means “the power of the populace” or “rule by the populace.”

The Greek word κράτος is also a root word behind our word aristocracy, which comes from the Ancient Greek word ἀριστοκρατία (aristokratía), which is formed from the word ἄριστος (áristos), meaning “the best,” and κράτος, meaning “power.” Thus, the word aristocracy literally means “the power of the best” or “rule by the best.” (In ancient Greece, it was widely believed—at least among members of the aristocracy—that those who were of wealthy birth were naturally and inherently better than those who were not born wealthy in every possible way: morally, aesthetically, intellectually, etc.)

To give you some idea of just what kind of power Kratos represents, during the time of the Roman Empire, the word κράτος was used as the Greek translation of the Latin word imperium, which means “the absolute power to command and be obeyed without question.” People in the Roman world who wielded imperium were followed around by bodyguards known as lictors, who carried the fasces, a bundle of rods with an ax blade emerging from it, symbolizing absolute authority. During the Byzantine Period, the word κράτος almost completely displaced the Latin word imperium.

The word κράτος is also a component of the word Παντοκράτωρ (Pantokrátōr), an epithet used to describe Jesus Christ in Eastern Orthodoxy that means “All-Powerful” or “Almighty.” In Greek mythology, the deity Kratos may be accurately thought of as personifying the all-powerful, unquestionable authority of Zeus.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a gold Koson from Roman Dacia depicting a consul with two lictors carrying fasces. The lictors carrying fasces represent the level of imperium the consul possessed. The Greek word κράτος was used as a translation for the Latin word imperium.

Hesiodos of Askre’s Theogonia

The earliest known mention of Kratos anywhere in ancient Greek literature comes from the poem Theogonia, a long narrative poem about the history of the deities that was composed in around the late eighth or early seventh century by the Greek poet Hesiodos of Askre. The poem mentions Kratos and his siblings in lines 383–388, which read as follows in the original Greek:

“Στὺξ δ᾽ ἔτεκ᾽ Ὠκεανοῦ θυγάτηρ Πάλλαντι μιγεῖσα
Ζῆλον καὶ Νίκην καλλίσφυρον ἐν μεγάροισιν:
καὶ Κράτος ἠδὲ Βίην ἀριδείκετα γείνατο τέκνα,
τῶν οὐκ ἔστ᾽ ἀπάνευθε Διὸς δόμος, οὐδέ τις ἕδρη,
οὐδ᾽ ὁδός, ὅππη μὴ κείνοις θεὸς ἡγεμονεύῃ,
ἀλλ᾽ αἰεὶ πὰρ Ζηνὶ βαρυκτύπῳ ἑδριόωνται.”

Here is my own fairly literal translation of these lines:

“And Styx, the daughter of Okeanos, was mixed with Pallas, and she gave birth
to Zelos [i.e. “Jealousy”] and Nike [i.e. “Victory”] the beautiful-ankled in the great halls.
And she gave birth also to Kratos [i.e. “Power”] and Bia [i.e. “Violence”], beautiful children.
These deities do not have a house far away from Zeus, nor any sitting-place,
nor a path except that one by which the deity leads them,
but always before loud-thundering Zeus do they dwell.”

According to this passage from Hesiodos, Kratos is the son of the Titan Pallas and the Okeanid nymphe Styx, his three siblings are Zelos, Nike, and Bia, and he and his siblings dwell eternally with Zeus.

Hesiodos goes on to recount how, after Zeus overthrew his father Kronos in the Titanomachia, he decreed that all deities who had not held positions under Kronos would be given positions in his new regime. Styx and her four children were the first ones to come to Zeus to ask for positions. Therefore, Hesiodos says that Zeus gave them the highest stations in his government and decreed that they would be permitted to dwell with him eternally.

The fact that Jealousy, Victory, Power, and Violence dwell eternally with Zeus is obviously meant to be highly symbolic. Hesiodos is clearly trying to send a message that Zeus is the supreme master of all things and that all powers over Jealousy, Victory, Power, and Violence are his to command.

ABOVE: Minerva and the Triumph of Jupiter, painted in c. 1706 by the French Neoclassical painter René-Antoine Houasse. In Greek mythology, Kratos is the personification of the absolute, unquestionable divine authority of Zeus.

Kratos in the opening scene of Prometheus Bound

Kratos’s most famous appearance anywhere in ancient Greek literature occurs in the opening scene of the tragedy Prometheus Bound, which was originally performed in Athens at some point in the fifth century BC. Prometheus Bound is traditionally attributed to the Athenian playwright Aischylos (lived c. 525 – c. 455 BC), but many scholars have questioned whether Aischylos really wrote it, since it differs significantly from his surviving plays of unquestioned authorship.

In the opening scene of Prometheus Bound, Kratos is portrayed as a brutal thug who works for Zeus and enforces Zeus’s rule over gods and mortals alike. Kratos bullies the mild-mannered blacksmith god Hephaistos into chaining the Titan Prometheus to the side of a cliff as punishment for stealing fire from the gods and giving it to humanity. While doing this, Kratos repeatedly advocates for the use of unnecessary cruelty against Prometheus. When Hephaistos feels sympathy for Prometheus, Kratos scolds him and threatens him with the wrath of Zeus. Here is the conversation, as translated by James Romm:

Kratos: “That’s enough. Why delay, indulge in pity?
You should hate the god whom all the gods hate most [i.e. Prometheus],
the one who gave your prize [i.e. the gift of fire] away to mortals.”

Hephaistos: “But to harm my kin is dreadful, or my comrade.

Kratos: “This I admit. But to shirk your father’s words—
How can you do it? Don’t you fear this more?”

Hephaistos: “Pitiless as ever, I see—and over-bold.”

Kratos: “Your whimpering for him won’t cure his ills.
Don’t trouble over what will do no good.”

Hephaistos: “Hateful skill of my hands—I curse it now!”

Kratos: “Why so? I tell you, and it’s no long tale,
your craft is not the cause of his hard labors.”

Hephaistos: “Still I wish some other had my calling.”

Kratos: “No job is light, except to rule the gods.
No one except for Zeus is truly free.”

A bit later in the scene, Kratos orders Hephaistos to drive a steel spike straight through the middle of Prometheus’s chest as hard as he can to make Prometheus suffer as much as possible. Hephaistos groans in sympathy for Prometheus. Kratos warns him that, if he doesn’t obey, Zeus will punish him just as severely as Prometheus. The conversation continues as follows, once again, as rendered in James Romm’s translation:

Kratos: “Now drive the keen edge of this steely spike
right through his chest. Put strength behind the blow.”

Hephaistos: “aiai Prometheus! Now I groan for your pains.”

Kratos: “What, shirking again, and groaning for Zeus’s foes?
Watch out, you’ll soon be pitying yourself.”

Hephaistos: “You see a sight that pains the eyes to look on.”

Kratos: “I see someone getting what he deserves.
Now fasten the restraints around his sides.”

Hephaistos: “I do what I must do. Don’t heap on orders.”

Kratos: “I will push you. I’ll shout it in your ears.
Go lower now—use force to bind his legs.”

Hephaistos: “The job is done. It didn’t need much effort.”

Kratos: “Now strike with all your force to lock the shackles.
The great Inspector [i.e. Zeus] won’t be trifled with.”

Hephaistos: “Such ugly words—they match your ugly form.”

Hephaistos’s comment in this scene about Kratos’s ugliness contradicts Hesiodos’s statement in his Theogonia that Kratos and Bia were “beautiful children.” We can probably interpret Hesiodos’s comment as flattery, though, since Hesiodos is known for calling deities “beautiful” that were normally regarded as hideous.

ABOVE: Scene from a performance of Prometheus Bound at the 1930 Delphic Festival. Kratos and Bia are shown holding Prometheus, while Hephaistos, shown here with red hair, stands nearby.

After Hephaistos leaves, Kratos stays behind to taunt Prometheus. He specifically mocks Prometheus’s name, Προμηθεύς (Promētheús), which, in Greek, literally means “Forethought.” In James Romm’s translation, Kratos declares:

“Now go and do your worst—steal from the gods
and give their prize to mortals! Your human friends—
how can they help you drain this sea of troubles?
The gods who called you Foresight named you wrong.
It’s foresight that you lack. You need it now—
to tell you how you can get out of this.”

Ever since the Romantic movement in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Prometheus has been widely seen as the archetypal rebel with a just cause, Zeus has been seen as the archetypal tyrant, and Kratos has been seen as an archetypal thug.

The classical scholar Robert Holmes Beck, however, argues in his book Aeschylus: Playwright Educator that Kratos’s severe treatment of Prometheus is not meant to be seen as cruel or excessive in any way, but is instead meant to be seen as the correct and proper enforcement of justice. He argues, based on quotes from Aischylos, that Aischylos believed that all punishments must necessarily be severe in order to deter potential transgressors.

He also argues that Prometheus is meant to be seen as delusionally ill character who fully deserves his punishment and that the trilogy that originally began with Prometheus Bound was supposed to be about Prometheus coming to accept Zeus’s absolute authority and recognize that his own punishment was completely necessary.

Personally, I’m not really convinced by Beck’s argument. I may be thinking anachronistically here and imposing modern moral standards on a play from 2,400 years ago, but Kratos as he is portrayed in this scene seems to me like a completely unsympathetic caricature of inhumane brutality, while Hephaistos and Prometheus seem to me like they are meant to be sympathetic—at least to some degree. It’s hard for me to imagine that the author of Prometheus Bound meant for us to fully sympathize with Kratos and not at all with Prometheus.

ABOVE: Illustration by the British Neoclassical artist John Flaxman (lived 1755 – 1826), first published in 1795, depicting Kratos and Bia holding Prometheus down as Hephaistos chains him to the mountainside. For some reason, in this illustration, Bia is portrayed as male.

The mythological Kratos and the video game character

There really is a god in Greek mythology named Kratos. Ironically, though, the video game character Kratos from the God of War series was apparently not intentionally named after the actual mythological deity at all. In fact, the creators of the game God of War actually had no idea that there even was a real deity in Greek mythology named Kratos.

Instead, the creators of the original 2005 video game God of War picked the name “Kratos” for their character at a very late stage in the development process, after the character had already been fully fleshed out. They picked the name because it was the Greek word for “Strength” and they considered strength to be the primary attribute of the character they had just created.

It was not until much later that some of the game developers found out that there really was a deity in Greek mythology called Kratos. In the 2010 documentary film God of War: Unearthing the Legend, which was sold alongside copies of the game God of War III, Stig Asmussen, the director of the game, described the fact that the video game character happened to have the same name as an actual god from Greek mythology as “a happy accident.”

ABOVE: Image from Wikimedia Commons of the video game character Kratos as he is portrayed in the 2018 video game God of War. The creators of the character Kratos had no idea there was actually a deity in Greek mythology with that name.